BLEACH: Behind a Friendly Face
by Waterga74
Summary: A boy's life goes incredible wrong in just one day. He meets with Neliel, who wants to help him, but why? There will be a lot of references, so keep your eyes peeled. Rated T for suggestive themes, violence, and eventually some language.
1. Chapter 1

**BLEACH: Behind a Friendly Face**

Disclaimer: I do not own BLEACH or its characters, all rights belong to Tite Kubo

**A/N: Yei! The first chapter of this. Whatever it is. =P**

**Chapter 1: Intro**

As I sat in seireitei, I thought back about my life, and how _it_ all started.

–-

I got out of bed, and went to the shower. After a short shower, I checked the mirror to check how I looked. My deep black hair was long, my bangs went down to my chin. I combed it so that it was parted above my left eye, and sloped down over my right eye. My eyes were brown, but it was impossible to tell unless you shone light directly at the iris. My face was thin but well fed, and it was clear of blemishes. The fact that it was a male face was hidden by its soft features.

I dried myself and got dressed. I put on a white shirt, then a gray t-shirt with black sleeved and a black skull design on top. I put on black jeans, and slid my cell phone neatly into my pocket. I looked at my dresser mirror to groom myself a last time as my hair dried. The hair on my right side of my face was curling backwards, while the hair on the left side was curling forwards. I lifted my hair to neaten up the hair over my eyes, when I noticed a white shard on my forehead, right underneath where my hair had been.

"What the Hell? I utter quietly, as I start to pick it off. It all came off except a jagged piece, about a square centimeter in diameter. I couldn't seem to get it off, so I ignored it and matted my hair in its place.

I open my dresser drawer, and take out a pair of brass knuckles and a flame-retardant roll of bandages, and I put them in a small satchel. I get a white belt, and put it on. I attach the satchel to it and I go down the stairs.

I look around, my parents have already left, but my brother was at the kitchen counter, head in a bowl of cereal, his red hair sopping wet, apparently sleeping. I roll my eyes, and lift his head, and drop it on the table. He wakes up and says,

"What do you want, Ken? Can't I get some sleep?"

"Can't you sleep in your bed?" I reply.

"No," he utters

"Why not?"

"There's a blood stain on the ceiling,"

"Why?"

"Cause..." he trails off. He suddenly seems to notice something, and I look at him curiously. He hits his tattooed forehead and gets up and runs upstairs, after which I hear a thud.

"Oh god, Renji," I mutter. Renji was adopted into our family, after he applied to a homeless child thing. Apparently, he's only 17, just a year older than me, even though he looks like a freaking 30-year-old. When he came to our house, he was extremely happy. Sometimes I overhear him muttering in his sleep,

"_Gaah... Sandal-hat..."_

"_Not... a... freeloader..."_

and on and on and on about that weird guy at the other end of town, Kisuke Urahaha.

I walked out the door, and I thought I saw a flash of black fly over me, but wasn't really paying attention. As I start to walk out, my cell phone lets out a note. I pull it out to find a text message from Victoria. My thinking becomes clouded at the thought of her. It says to meet them at the park, for some reason. I start walking to the park, where I would meet Caitlyn and Victoria, according to the text. I put my feet into autopilot, so that I think of Victoria. I'm so absorbed, that I don't notice that there's a man approaching me until he's a short meter away. I look up, and see his features. He has blue slicked back hair, and blue markings on either side of his scowling eyes. He's wearing a black jacket with a popped collar that covers most of his face, with a white shirt underneath. He has a long brown sack on his back, a leather strap on his chest. I look down to see cool green pants, with strange black and white shoes. I look up to find him scowling at me.

"What're you lookin at?" He demands rather lazily.

"A very strange man," I reply, annoyed that he had interrupted my blissful thoughts.

"What!?" He roars at me, lifting me up the ground by my collar, face full of rage. He suddenly regains his composure, and puts me down.

"Sorry, but I need you to help me. Can you help me get to Matou Park?" He asks. It was the park Victoria and Caitlyn were at.

"Sure, I was headed there anyways. What's your name?" I ask him.

He breathes in and proudly announces, "Grimmjow Jeagerjaque! Sexta-" He stops abruptly, then looks at the ground anxiously.

"Soo... uh... Let's go to that park," I say, eager to break the awkwardness. We walk to the park side by side, not saying a word. We get to a crossroad, and when I started to walk, Grimmjow rushed ahead to the other side, looking nervous. When we finally get to the park, we hear a roar, inhumane. We run up, and I see Victoria running from a huge monster with a mask resembling a buffalo's skull. It was a huge hunched being, with 2 hooved feet, and a large ape-like torso, with 6 fingers on each hand. There was a hole in its chest. I saw no sign of Caitlyn, maybe hiding somewhere.

"Shit, an A-Hollow," Grimmjow uttered under his breath. I gave him a look and he said, "No time to explain, here, take this." He opened his sack and pulled out a katana, unremarkable with no special features, besides having a green hilt wrapping. He gave it to me and then took another one out with a strange s-shaped tsuba, with a blue hilt wrapping and sheath that matched his hair and eye markings.

"What the fuck is this supposed to do to that giant thing?!" I scream at him.

"Watch," he said, as he ran at the A-Hollow and sliced a leg off, causing it to fall. I unsheath the sword, but a strange force prevents me from holding it up. After failing to lift it up, I scream in frustration and abandon the sword, and instead pull out my brass knuckles. The sword on the ground melts away and its particles fuse with my knuckles.

"Woah. This feels... weird," I say, as I start wrapping my hands with the bandages on top of the knuckles. I then rub my hands together in a way so that they catch fire. Grimmjow stares in amazement, then laughs.

"Hahahaha! You remind me so much of that one Gantenbainne guy! Ha!" He screams. I just start running at the being, to defend Victoria. Its foot had regenerated, and it directed its attention at the fiery boy. It swung its massive arms and hit me back. Surprisingly, I bounced right back up, and ran at him. I jumped, and I knocked its mask to pieces with my right fist. There was a moment where an imprint of my knuckles were left, then the Hollow fell to the ground, writhing in pain. I run to it and punch with my left, and the blazing figure melted away. I opened my hands, and the bandages fell away, the fire dieing out. I put my knuckles in my bag, and turned. Grimmjow looked shocked. _I would talk to him in a bit_. I resolved, _after I talk to Victoria._

"Victoria, are you-" I stopped mid sentence, the sight I saw was Victoria kneeling over my body, with a broken chain leading from my body's chest. I saw a small pentagram on my chest, with a single chain link on it. I suddenly noticed a giant weight on my forehead, and felt it. There was a large region of a strange smooth surface, like the shard on my forehead. It started to grow, expand. I looked at Grimmjow, he had a strange, shocked expression. He turned, and ran into the city. A few seconds later, he came out of nowhere wearing a strange white jacket, and a white hakama. I noticed that he had a piece of mask on the side of his mask, and a hole in his abdomen.

"Why'd-" I started to ask, but he interrupted.

"You have died. That chain was all that was connecting you to your body," He made a slight gesture to his abdomen. "You are a spirit. I ditched my gigai, my faux body, so that I could talk to you without your girlfriend hearing."

"Uh, she's not my-" I was interrupted again.

"I don't care. I'm surprised that you even have part of a mask, while you're still a human spirit, heck, you're not even turning into a Hollow," Grimmjow said arrogantly.

"Then, when spirits die, they turn to A-Hollows?" I ask.

"No, a Hollow is a malignant being, filled with hate, remorse, depression, and on and on and on," he said. "A-Hollows are a division directly controlled by Aizen. Look, I'd love to explain this all, but we need to do something about your body over there."

So he disappeared again, and his body came back with a paramedic team. They took my body, and I went in with it. At the hospital, Grimmjow showed up without his gigai so that he could talk to me. He spent a good 10 minutes explaining everything to do with Hollows and the spirit worlds, was about to begin on A-Hollows, then Caitlyn and Victoria came in. Victoria was a slim girl with a similar build and appearance to me, except that she had brown hair, long as her shoulders. She was wearing a blue shirt and jeans, and black converse shoes. Caitlyn had her black hair tied up in a ponytail, and she had tanned skin. She was wearing a black vest over a white shirt and jeans, with white converse shoes. My body had a very faint pulse, for some reason. They stood next to my body, and placed a white rose on my chest.

"I always loved you, Ken," Victoria muttered.

Suddenly, my single chain link shattered, and the mask spread rapidly over my face. My body fizzed away as I screamed. A few seconds later, I appeared in the same spot, with a huge pitch-black body, with white symbols resembling a very strange skeleton, and metal plate coatings on the fists, reaching up to my shoulders. I looked at the mirror, and saw that my mask resembled a skull, except that it was split at the top, and that it had two sabre-like teeth bordering several others at the jaw. There were rectangular markings all over the left side. I also noticed that there were several spikes on my back. I let out a roar, and Grimmjow backed away. I had no control over my body, and watched from a corner of my mind as the primal feelings ate me up. I saw the life support machine, there was no pulse. I punched Grimmjow through the wall. Caitlyn and Victoria screamed in fear, and huddled in a corner. I glanced at my body, and I regained control for a second. I punched through the wall and jumped out. I landed with a crash on the ground below. I looked around. The Hollow was incredibly aggressive, it hurt to fight back. I decided to go along with its thoughts and actions. Suddenly, I noticed the presence of several other Hollows, and a strange presence.

As I raged on to their location, I noticed that the presence was increasingly familiar. I felt an incredible hunger as I approached them. I let out a roar as I arrived, to alert them all to my presence. I looked at the Hollows, there were 5 of them. One was a green snake, with a spiked mask, another was a avian, with a pterodactyl's skull. The others were indistinguishable beings. I then looked at the other presence, and to my surprise, it was Renji, in a black kimono, and a strange katana in his hand.

_What?_ I thought. _Renji is a shinigami? Is that his Zanpakutou?_

"What! Another one!" Renji cried out at my sight. "I can barely handle these on my own!" The Hollows, feeling more confident, started to charge at Renji. Suddenly, I felt an incredible hunger, and I lunged at the snake Hollow. I punched it, and it was knocked unconcious. I started to eat it, against my will. I noticed, however that eating them made me more powerful, I felt more sure of myself. I then charged to attack the avian, but flew out of my range. I instead charged for a red one with several limbs. I knocked it back with a blow, but it then pierced my chest with one of its limbs. I then punched it in the face. As it was recovering, I hit the mask even more, destroying it completely, giving me another feast.

I looked over at Renji, and it looked shocked, he hadn't seen anything like this before. He pulled out a cell phone and started to talk about the situation; I found no interest in his life. I instead attacked the fourth Hollow, with an ape's mask and body, it was a very simple Hollow. I easily knocked him down, but then a strange whip destroyed it. As the whip retracted, I saw that several "teeth" were dragging into the body. As it reached its base point, I saw that it was wielded by Renji. I geared up to attack him, but I felt a strange restriction. We did have some brotherly bonding after all. I growled and backed off, the avian Hollow long gone. Before I could get far away, a sharp pain hit the corner of my head, not from Renji. Instead, I looked up, and saw another shinigami, with a large sword stuck in my mask, resembling a kitchen knife more than anything. He had spiky orange hair, and uttered,

"getsuga... tenshou."

**END**

**What'd you think? Leave a comment... or not... up to you... I guess... =(**


	2. Chapter 2: Las Noches

**BLEACH: Behind a Friendly Face**

Disclaimer: I do not own BLEACH or its characters, all rights belong to Tite Kubo

**A/N: A bit of Neliel lovin here, you fanboys (and fangirls *cough cough*) no complaining. I did enough work while I had no access to the internet so I could do two chapters. So yeah, not rushed. **

**Chapter 2: Las Noches**

A searing pain rushed through my body as the second shinigami's attack coursed through my body. I roared and punched at the orange haired shinigami. The pain extinguished my consciousness, allowing the Hollow to push over and go all out.

"Wait, Ichigo!" I faintly heard Renji. So the shinigami's name was Ichigo.

"What!" Ichigo said.

"This Hollow's reiatsu seems familiar, don't kill it yet," Renji cried out.

"Fine then," Ichigo said as he put his sword away, and pulled his hand over his face, forming a mask similar to my own, except that it wasn't split at the top, there were no large teeth, and the markings were curved rather than squarish. He then punched me in the chest, and all consciousness slipped away. I saw a certain blue-haired Arrancar jump in through bleary eyes.

-–

As I awoke, I saw that I was in a peculiar barrier, and a large man with a green suit was apparently holding it up. I saw several figures, including Grimmjow, Renji, and Ichigo. I saw them conversing, but I couldn't hear anything. I saw Grimmjow talking to the man in the suit, and he came in through.

"Yo!" He said as he approached. The scent of an arrancar seemed to kick my Hollow metabolism into overdrive, and I roared in hunger. I noticed that he had his sword unsheathed, and was in a fighting pose. I heard him singing quietlybefore he jumped and sliced at me. I successfully parried his hit with my arm, and I grabbed his and ripped it off, hungry for Vasto Lorde flesh. I hungrily ate it up, and felt my power skyrocket. I easily broke through the barrier with a flaming fist, screaming,

"KA!"

and then I punched at Ichigo with an earthy fist, screaming,

"CHI!"

He was knocked back into the wall, and fell unconscious. I broke into a run and darted up the stairs. I broke through another barrier and cried out.

The sky broke apart, and several menos poked their heads out. I saw a crescent of light, and all the people, besides the unconscious Ichigo, ran out, and all summoned a Hollow mask except Grimmjow, Renji, and 3 other people. They drew their zanpakutou, and the three seemed to have alternate weapons, and geared to attack me. Grimmjow released his zanpakuto and charged at me. I punched him back, using his own strength against him, and he quickly reverted to his original form. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder blade as a beam of light came down around me.

"This is familiar," Renji said.

"Of course, the menos help their allies this way," Grimmjow uttered painfully.

-–

I found myself on a vast sand plain, and I suddenly fell through the ground. I landed painfully several kilometers underneath. I looked around, and saw that I was in some sort of graveyard. I looked at a gravestone, and saw that it belonged to a shinigami, as did all the other graves. I felt the presence of several Hollows nearby, and rushed over, roaring in hunger.

I arrived, and saw a large crowd of Hollows fighting off a shinigami squad. I grinned, inconceivable under the mask, but I grinned anyways. I saw several Hollows falling, but I ignored them. Those who fall in battle are worthless. I rush at the shinigami, being of the highest reiatsu, easily knocking back all Hollows. I saw a young shinigami, and the others told him to stay back, addressing him as "Rikichi-kun." I easily gobbled up several shinigami before they started to fight back. I blasted through their formation with a powerful metal punch.

"KIN!"

One of them recognized me as an onmyouji*, and warned them to use kidou that would counteract my onmyouji powers. I then noticed a large whip-like zanpakuto resembling Renji's Zabimaru rushing at me from above. I easily blasted it away using water.

"SUI!"

As the other shinigami were distracted, I devoured them. Finally, only little Rikichi-kun was left, but I hesitated as I noticed that he had similar tattoos to Renji. I grabbed him, and threw him at the sand above. I saw him break the surface.

The other Hollows were complaining that I took all the shinigami, and that I didn't finish the last one off. With my powerful reiatsu, I easily destroyed them all, and ate those that had a high reiatsu.

–-

_Trudge along... Trudge along... trudge along..._

I looked around, coming out of my vegetative state. I was surrounded by Menos. I had grown in size, I had become a Menos Grande. I recalled that Grimmjow had said they led very boring lives, just standing around. I then thought about Victoria, and felt my heart consumed by rage, and desire. I felt my face melting as the standard Menos mask melted away, and returned to my own. I quickly devoured those near me, and I clawed my way up a stone pillar and above the ground.

I felt me return to a smaller form as I returned above the surface. I was at least an adjuchas level Hollow, and I was forced to travel to the castle of Las Noches that Grimmjow was prattling on about. As I trudged along, I remembered that Grimmjow had never told me what A-Hollows were. He also mentioned K-Hollows and I-Hollows. I wondered what the letters stood for.

I then stopped, coming to a halt in front of a large ant-lion pit. A large sand Hollow materialized, and I quickly blew past him with a blast.

"SUI!"

I came across a ragtag bunch of Hollows, who challenged me. I quickly beat them and devoured them. It would take a long time to arrive at Hueco Mundo.

-–

Several months had passed, and I had become a vasto lorde for sure by now. I could feel it. I was only a few days from the great citadel, and I could hardly wait. For what? I wasn't sure. But I had a feeling of satisfaction that grew the closer I got to Las Noches. I felt a strange presence following me, but I could see no-one. I dismissed the thought and continued my march across the sandy frontier, devouring whatever unlucky soul crossed my path.

When I reached Las Noches, I encountered a group of spirits, three appeared to be Arrancar, but three seemed to have a different reiatsu. The one in the center had to be Aizen Sousuke. He had such an air of authority, he couldn't have been anyone else. I then looked at the man next to him. He had pale hair and slanted eyes. He had a disturbing smile; hungry, lustful. The man on his other side had dark skin, glasses, and long black hair. I assumed that they were Ichimaru Gin and Kaname Tousen.

"Welcome. We have been expecting you," Aizen said proudly. "It has come to our attention that your reiatsu is exceptionally high, and that your battle skills are incredible."

"Our Espada have dwindled to little, and we have decided to draft you," Ichimaru Gin added, gesturing to the 3 figures behind them. They said their names as they approached, as if I was of their kind.

"Ulquiorra Schiffer," a small Espada with green tear marks said.

"Yammy," a huge Espada breathed.

"Neliel tu Oderschvank," a large breasted Espada with green hair said calmly.

"There is one Espada who has deserted us, deciding to aid those on the opposing force," Kaname Tousen said. "Grimmjow Jeagerjaque."

"Come inside, and you shall gain much power," Aizen said, turning to Hueco Mundo fortress.

-–

I was wrapped in bandages, from head to toe. I wondered if I would perish in them, to be preserved as a test case. Suddenly, the bandaged fell apart, and my body felt like it was being compressed. Suddenly, my face felt free and aired, and I looked at my hands. They were of a human's again, as was... the rest of my body. I saw that my metal platings were gone, and there was a lone gauntlet on the ground. I picked it up, and saw that a pentagram was emblazoned into the top of it.

_The onmyouji's mark_.

I fingered the spikes on the knuckles of the gauntlets, and counted 5 of them, despite only having 4 striking knuckles. I realized I was naked, but cared not. I looked around and noticed that all six of the group were standing around me. I saw Neliel's stares, and she looked away, embarrassed. I wondered if I felt anything in response.

_Nothing... I care not for any other woman._

My Arrancar body was still forming, and the inner turmoil calmed. As it did, I heard a clanking behind me. I looked around, and saw that it was Grimmjow's Zanpakutou. I looked at it, and thought back to how I got it. Then I realized that this was the pain in my shoulder as I left the real world. Grimmjow had given me _Pantera_.

I looked around and saw that they were all staring in disbelief. _How had he come across his Zanpakutou? Is he in league with him?_ I heard them mumble such things. I decided to cease their incessant muttering.

"He stabbed me as I left the real world, as a Hollow," I declared. Their faces seemed relieved, as if this was keeping in check with all their knowledge of Grimmjow. I picked up the gauntlet, and slid my left hand neatly into it. I then picked up Grimmjow's sword, and a scabbard materialized on its blade as I claimed it as its new owner.

"What shall we call you, Arrancar numero tercero? Aizen inquired, the other Espada looked at him, surprised, not out of anger, but of awe. "The third Espada?" Gin muttered.

"Akaitto. Akaitto Tentouken," I said.

"Very well. Fetch some clothes for Tentouken," Aizen said to a numeros standing at the door. "One of you, show Tentouken to his new quarters." Aizen was clearly addressing one of the 3 Espada. Neliel blushed and came forward to guide me to my room. She was just a little shorter than me, and she was very beatiful, even with her scar. I watched the wings and corridors of Las Noches carefully and observantly as Neliel led me to my quarters.

Finally, the silence was broken as I arrived at my quarters, "Here we are, Tentouken-san," she said, blushing, although it was a little hard to tell because of her birthmark.

"Please, don't be so stiff. Just call me Ken," I said cooly as I walked into my room. I turned and said, "Thank you, Neliel."

"You're very welcome," she said with a big smile on her face. As I turned, I thought I saw her staring at my body out of the corner of my eye.

A few minutes later, the same numeros came to my room with the standard Arrancar jacket, hakama, and shoes. He stood there as I put them on. The numeros stood as I put them on. The shoes and hakama fit well, but the jacket was rather long, and caught on my gauntlet and tore. I took the jacket off and used _Pantera_ to slice off the white sleeves, while leaving the black sleeves elbow-length. I put it back on, and popped the collar, and then decided to close it, so that it went around my head, over my mouth.

I took a look in the mirror, and saw that 2 black lines ran side-to-side under each eye. Each was about 1 cm thick and 3 cm long. I saw that my hair was rather messy, so I neatened it. After many futile attempts at returning my hair to its former style due to two white, short, wide spikes sticking out, I decided to adopt a new style. I combed the parted hair on the left of my head back, and the styled the hair on the right side of my head to resemble Grimmjow's hair. I could then see my hollow mask clearly. It was the upper part of the mask, except that it was raised a few centimeters up, causing the split top spiked up through my hair, and the bridge of the nose was perfectly preserved. Everything from above my eyebrows to my hair line was covered.

I talked to the numeros, he had brown hair that spiked back, and the remnants of his hollow mask was the area between the upper jaw and eye holes, with only the side teeth intact, the front teeth had been knocked out. His name was Balutoi Furederu, and he was assigned to me to guide me through becoming accustomed to Las Noches.

"Heh. I like you, Balutoi," I said, "You could be a good friend.

**END**

**Soooo... what do you think? Kudos to those who can identify who Balutoi's Name was derived from.**

***Onmyouji are ancient Japanese specialists that specialists in magic and divination. Their court responsibilities ranged from tasks such as keeping track of the calendar, to mystical duties such as divination and protection of the capital from evil spirits. They could divine auspicious or harmful influences in the earth, and were instrumental in the moving of capitals. It is said that an _onmyōji_ could also summon and control shikigami.**

**Directly from Wikipedia. =P**

**Also, the Onmyouji are associated with the Wu Xing Star of Elements.**


End file.
